Tom Flynn is Executive Director of The Council for Secular Humanism,

Editor of Free Inquiry magazine, Director of Inquiry Media

Productions, and Director of the Robert Green Ingersoll Birthplace

Museum.

A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and freethought historian, Flynn is

the author of numerous articles and editorials for Free Inquiry

magazine. In addition to The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, his

books include two black comedy science fiction novels, Nothing Sacred,

its prequel Galactic Rapture, and The Trouble With Christmas,

a secularist critique of the holiday. He has made hundreds of radio and

TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly "anti-Claus."

In this conversation with Robert Price, Tom explains how he transitioned

from his conservative Catholic youth Secular Humanist he is today. He talks about the part Mormonism played in his

transition to non-belief. Perhaps one of the most consistent secularists

around today, Tom elaborates on the problems he has with rites of

passage ceremonies and marriage. He talks about what he sees as

problems with some secular charity programs and the parts of life he believes should

be off-limits to a secular community. Finally, he and Price discuss

radical Islam and how we should approach talking about it.